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Blog comments do not reflect the views or opinions of the Author or Ancel Glink. Some of the content may be considered attorney advertising material under the applicable rules of certain states. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Please read our full disclaimer

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Thursday, April 21, 2016

Last week, the Illinois House
passed House Bill 4379, creating the Local Government Travel Expense Control
Act. The bill has since moved to the Illinois Senate for consideration. This proposed legislation seeks to
prevent public officials from abusing expense reimbursement policies funded by
tax dollars. The bill would require
non-home rule units of local government to adopt a regulation or ordinance
regulating travel, meal and lodging expenses of officers and employees,
including (1) the types of official business for which travel, meal and lodging
expenses are allowable; (2) maximum allowable reimbursement for travel, meal
and lodging expenses; and (3) a standardized form for submission of travel,
meal, and lodging expenses. It would also prohibit reimbursing entertainment
expenses and expenses that exceed a maximum allowable for expenses.

As you may know, there are
several watchdog groups actively watching expense reimbursement issues and all documentation
they seek is readily available through the Freedom of Information Act. This
legislation seeks to make the expense reimbursement process even more
transparent. If you have not done so
recently, perhaps it is time to review and update your public body’s expense
reimbursement policy. Because the Illinois Constitution prohibits the
expenditure of public funds for personal purposes, it is important to have a
strong expense reimbursement policy even in the absence of this new, proposed
legislation.

In drafting an expense policy,
you might consider the following provisions, at a minimum:

1. A limitation that any funds reimbursed will only be for
events that the public official or employee has attended in his/her official
capacity and in which the official or employee is actively participating;

2. A definition and limitation on what necessary and reasonable
expenses might include:

Travel (coach);

Lodging;

Standard cost of a basic room for
the nights before, of, and immediately following the event;

No special charges to room;

Any hotel expense in excess of
the conference rate will be paid with personal funds;

Meals and beverages, excluding a
prohibition about paying for alcohol;

There are certainly many flexible
variables that can be customized for your public body, such as whether expenses
are advanced or reimbursed, the time line within which expenses must be
submitted, caps on meal expenditures, etc.
With the transparency light now shining on public expense reimbursement
issues due to a few bad apples, it is certainly much better to have a policy in
place before a problem occurs. Public officials who have had their conference
expenditures published in the headlines can tell you that the publicity is
generally not favorable.